A case report of infection by contaminated port in a child with leukemia

Leukemia is a systemic disease in which the normal mechanisms for producing blood elements impairs. Leukemia, malignant clonal growth of hematopoietic cells, is resulted from a malignant precursor cells. ALL is the most common cancer among children. These patients are prone to get bacterial infections. Serratia marcescens is one of the most common bacterial causes of nosocomial infections and epidemics of a neonatal intensive care units.
Case: The patient is a 5-year old boy with leukemia (ALL) who presented to Mahak hospital. He had a history of surgery a few weeks ago and has an arm port in his left arm. Routine urine analysis showed no evidence of abnormalities. Blood culture was positive for Serratia marcescens. The bacteria was also isolated from the culture of port in EMB, blood agar and chocolate agar. Antibiotic susceptibility test was carried out by disk diffusion method according to CLSI guidelines, in which Serratia marcescens was resistant to many antibiotics.
Serratia marcescens is an organism that has the ability to cause bacteremia, especially among immune compromised patients and leukemic children.